“This is a company that is very R&D dependent and has now gotten to a place where it is very capital intensive too. And so, we're always searching for comparisons or analogies for AI. To me, this looks a lot like a leading edge foundry… You have to do intensive R&D, and then you have to deploy an immense amount of capital in order to monetize that. I mean, that's TSMC, right? We're going to spend $50 billion a year on CapEx and we're going to have 3,000 PhDs working for us.”
The Circuit · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · November 2026
Context
The hosts were discussing Anthropic's plan to take direct control of data centers, moving from a capital-light software model to a capital-heavy one. Jay reframes Anthropic as closer to a chip manufacturer than a SaaS business.
Transcript
…thing is that Anthropic has gotten as far as it has now without any of that. They use NVIDIA, they use Tranium because that was what available to them. And they didn't even own it. Now they're going to own it because the market is so tight. But they've come an awfully long way without any of that.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'll tell you, where this leads me is, if you think about Anthropic, like, what is it? It's not an internet company. Like, it's available on the internet, but it's not an internet company. It's kind of a software company. But typically now, for years, we've learned to think of software companies as SaaS companies that are asset light. This is a company that is very R D dependent and has now gotten to a place where it is very capital intensive too. And so, you know, we're always searching for comparisons or analogies for AI. To me, this looks a lot like a leading edge foundry, right? Where you have to do intensive R D, and then you have to deploy an immense amount of capital in order to monetize that. I mean, that's TSMC, right? We're going to spend $50 billion a year on CapEx and we're going to have 3,000 PhDs working for us. And that's how we stay ahead.
You're right. No, you're absolutely right. That is all true. It's just a super interesting dynamic. And you're right. It is a big change. And it is this thing that we're talking about that is driving the concerns in the industry that we see. Like people are just like, they get it, but they've not…
Yeah. I mean, and I think that's, that's the thing that gives people pause here is this is going to cost a lot of money, right? One of the key things that they left blank in the preliminary S1 was the amount of purchase commitments they've made for silicon. And the reason they left it blank is…
But did you not think I saw this come up and you read it? But you didn't think that some of that was because they were getting some subsidized infrastructure from their partners? Like they weren't, are they paying traditional market rates? Are they profitable paying traditional market tokens, I…
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